Keith LaMar Performs 'Freedom First' at CMA and the Rest of the Classical Music to Catch This Week

Keith LaMar, shown on screen from the Ohio State Penitentiary, calls in to stages around the world to perform his unique spoken word poetry. He’ll be doing the same with a live jazz quartet next week at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Credit: Gemma Martz

We’ll change things up this week and list our recommended classical music events by genre.

ORCHESTRA CONCERTS will feature Barbara Hannigan conducting The Cleveland Orchestra with soprano Aphrodite Patoulidou on Thursday (repeated on Friday morning and Saturday evening), Jeannette Sorrell leading Apollo’s Fire in Baroque music from Venice (Thursday at The Temple-Tifereth Israel & Friday at Avon Lake UCC), and Kelly Corcoran conducting the Canton Symphony with Julie Sarver, piccolo in a “Baroque Bash” on Saturday,

Also on Saturday, Matthew Salvaggio will conduct the Cleveland Repertory Orchestra in music by Margaret Brouwer, including the premiere of her Saxophone Concerto featuring Andrew Hosler. And on Sunday afternoon, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra will play its fall concert under the baton of Daniel Reith in a program that includes Walter Piston’s The Incredible Flutist: Suite, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.

CHAMBER MUSIC & SMALL ENSEMBLE CONCERTS bring the CityMusic Chamber Series to Praxis Fiber Workshop on Friday, on Sunday the CIM New Music Ensemble celebrates the music of Kaija Saariaho in Mixon Hall, and Cleveland Chamber Music Society hosts the Danish String Quartet on Tuesday at Disciples Center.

GUITAR PERFORMANCES include the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s Showcase Concert starring the Gruca White Ensemble (guitarist Robert Gruca and flutist Linda White), Brazilian singer Luca Mundaca, jazz guitarist-composer Dan Wilson & bassist Brandon Rose at the Maltz on Saturday, and A Theorbo and Guitar Program by Andrew Flory at the Church of the Western Reserve on Sunday.

SOLO CONCERTS will feature Canadian pianist and composer Stewart Goodyear in CIM’s Mixon Hall on Wednesday, and opera composer Jake Heggie will give a piano recital in Warner Concert Hall during his visit to Oberlin on Sunday.

A SPECIAL EVENT at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Wednesday will showcase Freedom First, the 2022 debut album of Cleveland-born poet, writer, and activist Keith LaMar, who has spent 30 years in solitary confinement on death row at the Ohio State Penitentiary for a crime he testifies that he did not commit. Read more here.

Click here to visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings page for more information.

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